"It isn't them I'm worried about. I think some idiot set the forest on fire."
Two head swiveled around to survey the forestry they had just put behind them. One was a haggard, thin man with a gaunt face and penetrating hazel eyes. Halfway up his left calf there was something lodged into his skin. Far enough that whatever it was had clearly gone right through the soft muscle tissue of his leg. Thick trails of crimson liquid crawled down his leg; it smeared the vegetation he passed. His chest rose and fell quicker than the other man's. Black spots had been dancing about his vision for a few minutes now.
The second man was taller and fuller in frame. He had blond hair and wicked blue eyes concealed behind circular, thick-framed glasses. His tongue darted out to wet his dry, chapped lips.
The forestry behind them had been flooded with the sound of marching footsteps and the snapping of twigs and branches. Now, however, there wasn't a whiff of their pursuers. The blond flicked his eyes over to his companion for a brief moment before returning to the tree line they had left behind.
The prolonged silence was akin to the settling of doom. Both men felt their stomachs drop in anticipation and be weighed down with dread. Silence had never been a precursor for anything good.
Above them, in the sky, small wisps of smoke danced in the air. The blond had noticed it first. They couldn't smell smoke and had yet to see any fire, but it was an ominous sign for he very much doubted anyone near here was setting up a campfire.
A few tense seconds past in silence. The blond inhaled and exhaled steadily while his companion panted. The hazel-eyed man reached up to catch his balance as his vision swam and his center of gravity finally failed. His hand slammed against the high knee of a cypress tree. He blinked.
"Look," he huffed. The blond glanced over.
"What?"
"We're near water."
The blond lifted his arm to wipe the building sweat off his forehead. "Let's keep going—"
"HIS FIRE WILL PURGE ALL THE UNWORTHY!"
Both heads snapped back to the forestry behind them. The shout had been the only sound to break the silence, and now the silence returned.
"Did he say fire?" the shorter man gaped.
"We have to move," the blond grabbed the other man's arm. "Now."
The taller of the two turned on his heel and dragged his injured companion along. Said injured man didn't tear his eyes away from the forestry on the horizon. There was a dark, thundering boom—perhaps a figment of the injured man's fractured consciousness—before an orange glow erupted, faintly at first. Then red-hot claws and tongues tore through the trees, climbing down to the clearing they had just barely crossed. Smoke bellowed into the air.
"Shit," the injured man turned and hobbled through the maze of knees and cypress trees.
The blond man who was now in front, tunneled a way through the thin, spindly branches and moss.
"You said we're near water?"
"Cypress trees only grow on banks," the hazel-eyed man's answer was harried and nervous.
The moister soil of the cypress trees stayed the fire for a moment but the hot element remained close, hissing at the touch of the wet moss.
"Come on," the blond's grip tightened on his companion's arm. He urged them both tumbling over a few knees.
"Ow, fuck," the injured man cursed as he landed in a heap behind the blond. He glared up at the other who had already regained his balance. "You can't rush me along. My leg's bum."
"Bum?!" the blond barked back before sinking his fingers in the other's bicep and pulling him to his feet forcefully. "We're both getting out of this damn forest... If it's the last thing I do."
The fire caught the branches by the thin man's ear.
"There's the creek," the blond pointed. "Come on, come on."
"I'm coming! I'm right here!" the thin man griped as he was tugged continuously onward. "I'm going to bleed out."
"Bleed out or burn out? Choose one," the blond bit back.
"I prefer to burn out—HEY," the injured man yelped as he was thrown forward. "What the hell?!"
He was sent tumbling over the bank's hedge and down into a muddied shore. He coughed and sputtered, glancing up at the hedge just in time to see the blond's face flash before his eyes before they collided and fell back first onto the rocky bottom of the shallow creek.
As both men got to their feet again, the thin one commented, "This creek's pretty shallow."
"Come on," the blond urged as he reached over to cover both their mouths as smoke poured in.
The two men hurried alongside one another, their legs sloshing through the stream, the injured one's leaving a watery trail of light red.
"We need to make a pact before we take another step," the thin man coughed, shoving the other man's hand away from his mouth, replacing it with his own hand a second later.
"What's that?"
"This is the last time we try to convert a cult."
The blond's eyebrows shot straight to his hairline.
"Agreed."
***
A/N: I post the prompt screenshot at the end because I want peeps to guess it. :)
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